


A Question of Honesty & Generosity

by hobbeshalftail3469



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Angus!, Both single, Cosmopolitan surveys, F/M, Office Kiss, Strike canon language, Stuck in the office, best mates, both horny, eventually admitting to feelings, it is a ridiculous reason don't overthink it!, or is it sekrits?, revealing secrets, sex survey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:14:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28506558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hobbeshalftail3469/pseuds/hobbeshalftail3469
Summary: I started writing this AGES ago - LulaIsAKitten and I bounced ideas back and forth with hilarious results, we couldn't quite work out whether it would work. BUT given the nature of how their relationship has changed post Troubled Blood it feels like now it WOULD work a bit better.So, the basic premise is that Cormoran and Robin have to remain inside the Denmark Street offices, alone, while a gas leak is sorted out (I did say it is a ridiculous reason, don't overthink it!) and Robin is part way through a sex survey in Cosmo....Cormoran gets in on the act and it leads to loveliness!
Relationships: Robin Ellacott/Cormoran Strike
Comments: 26
Kudos: 58





	A Question of Honesty & Generosity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DenmarkStreetGutterClub](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DenmarkStreetGutterClub/gifts), [LulaIsAKitten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LulaIsAKitten/gifts).



> I wrote all of the start to this before TB....I think I did a bit of a Mystic Meg (might be a UK only reference there!) with my idea about Matthew and Robin's divorce based on what we knew at the end of LW.

“Information says close all windows and stay put until further notice!” Cormoran puffed out his cheeks as he came through from his own office into Robin’s work space, wishing that he’d taken advantage of having a cigarette earlier on when he’d been out on the lunchtime sandwich run.

“Bloody building work….how can they have ruptured a main gas line?” Robin shook her head and twisted around from the kettle she’d been filling and flicking on.

Cormoran shrugged and wrinkled his face slightly, “Bugger knows! At least I have a legitimate excuse to leave off that surveillance on Rugby Shirt….didn’t fancy schlepping about after him all afternoon if I’m honest!”  
Robin allowed her face to soften as she poured boiling water over tea bags in their mugs.   
She knew her work colleague’s leg had been playing him up and that this was as close as he’d get to admitting it!

“So?.....afternoon of paper work then?” she grinned, giggling slightly at his pained face pulled back at her.

“Do I have to?” he complained, “Surely there must be something better than that!”

“Well, we could pop upstairs and watch crap afternoon TV!” she suggested, noticing and trying to ignore the slight raise of his eyebrows after she’d said the word upstairs, “Or, you could attack the limescale on the taps in the loo!”

“Bloody hell! I think the paper work sounds more appealing!” he conceded, accepting the hot mug of treacle coloured tea Robin passed to him and grunting happily as she tossed a Twix across to him from her bottom desk drawer.

“Actually we haven’t got any outstanding paperwork….I did it all this morning,” she grumbled, plonking down on her swivel chair and swinging aimlessly as she blew on her tea.  
Strike had picked up the folded over and well thumbed magazine Robin had been flicking through for the past couple of weeks.  
He immediately noticed the scribbled comments and inked ticks and circles on the mainly text filled page.  
Robin became aware of him and pursed her lips as his eyebrows shot up into his hairline upon realising exactly what the article focused on.

“Errrr…..???” he asked, smirking with a glint in his amused green eyes.  
Robin could feel her cheeks reddening with embarrassment and flapped her hand out, partially crawling across her desk to try to reach the magazine which Strike was, she knew, keeping purposefully just out of her reach.  
He maintained his questioning but amused gaze on her, and she found herself laughing inspite of herself.

She had been fully divorced and single for almost 8 months.   
Matthew had very quickly moved on with his relationship with Sarah Shadlock and other than a couple of dates in the early days of her singleton-dom she’d not had, or indeed missed, the companionship of the opposite sex.

Her friendship and work relationship with Cormoran was wonderful.   
He offered her everything she was looking for in a relationship……he was dependable, allowed her freedom to be herself, was a good laugh and didn’t put any pressure on her. Apart from the fact that she was as horny as hell and was therefore partway through completing a survey entitled ‘Are you a secret sexpot or not?’….. what need did she have of a man?

“Oh God!!! Don’t judge me,” she retorted trying unsuccessfully to swipe the magazine from his hand as he scrutinised the various questions and topics covered.

“No judgement….but…aren’t some of these questions a little bit…..you know….uni and all that?” he asked, kindly.

He was the one person who seemed to have accepted her historic experience as just that….history to her and nothing to do with the present.

She nodded forcefully before replying, “None of that counts in any way in any answer….and stop looking!”

He ignored her with a raised eyebrow smirk, “Wow! Number 3’s a bit revealing, Ellacott….in more ways that one!” but he passed back the folded magazine edition.  
She glanced at the question he’d focused on; it had involved selecting from a series of images the one which most closely resembled her idea of sexy lingerie that would get a man’s heart racing!  
It hadn’t passed him by that she hadn’t opted for the traditional black stocking and basque image and seemed to have gone for a much more subtle and seductive image involving soft, peachy coloured undies with black edging and swirls across the otherwise plain, sheer garments.

He shifted position on the farting sofa, purposefully trying to make it emit one of it’s often unwanted noises, but on this occasion it was resolutely mute.  
He cursed under his breath and began to run through old crime scene images in his head, trying to fill his olfactory senses with the odour of decaying human cadaver to stave off the thought of his work colleague in her preferred choice.  
….yeah, whatever the quiz said he’d give that full marks!

“So how come you’re spending your free time on stuff like this?” he indicated the magazine which she was perusing again.

She puffed out her cheeks, “Because…..it’s been so long since I had any I’m worried I’ll forget!” she shrugged and regarded Strike’s amused expression.

“Fair enough! You haven’t got a monopoly on that, come on then, catch me up…..in the name of full disclosure I’m option 2 on question 3 by the way…..boring, obvious typical male I’m afraid!” and he pulled one of the small notepads he always seemed to have on his person from his trouser pocket and snatched up a pen from Robin’s desk.

She giggled as she realised he was deadly serious about the pair of them passing an hour in the office completing a sex survey quiz….and glanced absently across to the open page.  
So, black stockings was his preference! Fair play!

“Right…OK….I think all the other answers can be written down without sharing…..so no need to find out too many embarrassing details….are you sure?” she queried.   
Hers and Strikes relationship was generally based on clear boundaries which stayed clear of their own private lives…..he’d mentioned when he’d been on a couple of dates, she’d mentioned the few she’d had in the early days of her divorce being finalised, and the lack of mentions recently implied that his sex life was as none existent as her own.

“’Kay….so what is question 1?” he asked, pen poised, lips crinkled.

Robin matter of factly read it out, “How many sexual partners do you consider appropriate before settling down?”  
He gave a grunting snort and twisted slightly so that his ruffled head faced her behind the desk.  
“When we say sexual…what is the definition?”

Robin slow blinked and shrugged, “Well…..sex….surely I don’t need to give you a talk!”

He gave her an amused, “Ha ha!” before expanding his question, “Are we saying it has to be basic, penetrative sex, or does oral count?”  
Robin felt a small flush to her neck and prayed it wouldn’t come out on her cheeks….it didn’t help that Strike was sucking the end of his pen with his uneven lips.  
She shook her gaze away from them and considered his question…..thinking for her own experience it would be the same number!

“Does it make a difference?” she asked.

“YES!” he stated, quite forcefully.

“Oh!....well, it’s categories, so, a) is 1, b) is between 2 and 6, c) is between 7 and 14 and d) is 15 plus…does that help?” she asked, raising her eyebrows as she saw his lips move as if he was counting under his breath.

“Right, OK, that works,” and he wrote a scribbled ‘D’ on his pad. “Right number 2?”

Robin looked down at her own response to this question before she calmly read it aloud, “What is your preferred sexual position?”

“Are there choices, or is it just write one?” he asked, almost as if the question had been as simple as ‘what’s your favourite colour?’

She blinked at his calm manner but answered him, “There are choices actually,” and she handed the magazine across to him.

“Hmmmmm….can I only choose one?” he asked.

“Yes! Favourite…..you must have a favourite!” she stated, feeling that the topic they were discussing in such a randomly calm manner rendered any idea of embarrassment null and void.

“Well…..it depends,” he muttered, dragging the hand holding the pen through his riotous hair, creating a new riotous style on his head.

“…on what…or dare I ask?” Robin quipped.

“On whether my leg is playing me up!” he stated, quashing the varied thoughts hanging in the air between them with his rather practical, and possibly boring, reasoning.

“Oh….fair enough. But I still say you are only allowed one…so maybe pretend it is and go with the one you’d choose then.”

“Right, 3 we know….what’s question 4?” he asked.

Robin picked up her own pen, “Well I’d got up to number 3, so we’re both on answers now. Number 4, is a yes or no; have you ever had sex outdoors?” she circled the yes response on the page.

“Ok, 5?”

“Same again, this time have you ever had sex in a car?”

Again she circled the yes option and thought back to the experience with a grimace and shake of her head. Strike’s expression however was one of slightly dreamy smugness as he clearly scribbled a tick on his notepad.

“Ok? Question 6, have you ever had sex on public transport?” Robin’s brow furrowed, as did Strike’s.

“Does an underground station count?” he asked, but then pursed his lips and mumbled, “Normal trains do though,” and again clearly added a tick to his notepad.

Robin was slightly side-tracked by the thought of Cormoran shagging someone on a train but circled the no on the magazine page.  
“We’re whizzing through these, next?” he requested as he wriggled on the sofa to get more comfortable.

“Erm….number 7, have you ever had sex on an airplane?” Robin ticked off the yes option and glanced across to see a perturbed pout on her work colleagues’ face.   
She smirked slightly at the thought of him squeezed into an airplane toilet.

“Does a blow job under a blanket count?”

“NO!” she grinned as he tutted and planted a cross on his pad.  
Robin stifled her laughter at his almost petulant mumbled grumble of ‘‘I was doing well, not my fault toilets are so fucking small!’’

“You don’t get a prize for the most points!” she exclaimed, but secretly loving that she’d scored one back.

“Question 8?!” he asked, voice raised and tapping his pad with his pen.

She sniggered and gazed at the magazine, “OK, number 8 is……oh, you have to write down the sexual acts you consider to be your particular skills! Looks like in the answers there are different points scored for each,” Strike twisted around on the sofa and called across as she turned the magazine page around.

“Oi! Stop looking at the answers! Be truthful!” he yelled and turned back to his notepad as Robin tutted and started to write her succinct list.

She noticed that Cormoran was scribbling on his pad, the tip of his tongue caressing his upper lip as it always did when he was concentrating.  
“Bloody hell Cormoran, it’s not War and Peace!” she quipped, part amused, part intrigued as he didn’t pause in his scribbling to answer her.  
She gave him another minute or so and made a gargling noise, looking at her watch in exaggeration, “Hurry up….you don’t need accurate punctuation!”

He gave a withering look in her direction, “I’m bullet pointing as it is!” he shrieked.

“How many buggering bullet points have you got?” she asked….very definitely intrigued now.

He scanned his note pad and without glancing up commented, “7…oh, hang on, make that 8….although technically 3 and 8 are the same just on different body parts.”

The latter part of his statement was rather mumbled, as if talking to himself rather than sharing the information, but Robin realised that she’d shifted in her seat and crossed her legs as she thought about the possibilities.  
“Right, done….and might I say, I think my attention to detail in my list could actually explain why my list is so lengthy!” he gave a smug, but light hearted wink in her direction.

“Right, number 9…oh……hmmmm,” she trailed off and Strike again twisted around to meet her gaze.

“What? Too revealing? Shall we each read and write anonymously?” he suggested.

Robin sniffed and cleared her throat, “No, it’s OK, although we’ll have to both look at the page for the last one, it’s a number rating thing.”

“Fine…come on, question 9 Ellacott,” he sniffed and twirled his pen expectantly.

“Have you ever had a sexual encounter involving an animal?” she quickly stated, feeling her own blush and seeing how he froze on the sofa.

“Bestiality? Blimey, this has taken a bit of a turn!” he giggled and glanced across, his eyebrows almost blending into his hairline as he saw her look of pondering consideration. “Ellacott, it’s a simple yes or no, no bullet pointing required!” he smirked and couldn’t stop his mind wandering at the thought of his naïve, girl nextdoor work colleague possibly having a decidedly kinky side to her.

“When we say sexual encounter…….what exactly did we decide?” she asked, stammering slightly and wincing.

“We didn’t decide!” he shrieked, “But I suppose being in the country you could theoretically have done some weird dare involving wanking a pig!”

Robin exploded, open-mouthed at him, “I have NEVER given hand relief to a pig….or a bull, or a ram before you start!”

He was full on chortling now, “OK….so what are you second guessing then?”

She sniffed and almost snubbed him, “I was just wondering if an orgasm caused by an animal counted,” and she tried to look as controlled and authoritative as she could.

“Purposeful or accidental?” he asked.

“Well, Angus didn’t know he was….” And she clamped her hand to her mouth as she realised she’d perhaps shared too much.

But Cormoran grinned widely, “Oh, I get it….saddle free happy time! Good old Angus!.....yeah, that counts if you did it more than once!”  
She purposefully kept her pen still as Strike stared at her, beaming so broadly it looked like his face would break in two.

“Question 10…you have to give each of these a score, 1 up to 8, 1 being the least turn on, 8 the most…you have it first, I need a wee,” Robin stated, passing him the dog eared page and making her way to the loo.  
On her way back in she detoured to the kitchenette and flicked on the kettle, “Want a cuppa?” she asked, taking down 2 mugs even before he had answered.

“Yep, but I’ll do that, you do the rating thing then we can add up and find out why the pair of us are not getting any!” he smirked, hauling himself off the sofa and taking then teaspoon from her hand as he placed the magazine article into it.

She scrutinised the 8 options: sense of humour; intelligence; manners; physical attractiveness; a kick ass body; money; honesty; generosity.  
She quickly allocated an order and gave a small, audible sigh at which she had allocated the top score to, and snorted at what she assumed Strike would have selected given the physical attractiveness and generally perfect bodies of Strike’s previous girlfriends!

He was stirring the tea; metal clanging against the ceramic of the mugs; so she risked glancing across at his scribbled notepad.  
Least turn on money….yeah, she could have guessed that one, but she was pleasantly shocked at his 7 and 8 scores …….exactly the same as hers....who'd have thought?

She was blushing and smiling when he arrived bearing their tonally different mugs of tea. He noticed her expression and briefly considered that she was the complete living embodiment of his 1-8 rating for what turned him on in a woman…..it had taken him 40 years and a complete fluke of a temp agency cock up, but she was everything he wanted.

“OK? You all scored and decided on what makes you drool?” he asked, handing across her tea before returning to lounge across the sofa stuffing a chocolate biscuit into his mouth.

Her eyes lingered on his massive bulk as he slumped onto the faux leather fabric, which on this occasion emitted one of it’s trademark noises and he cursed, spilling some of his tea onto his shirt. He swiped ineffectively at it, mumbling multiple blasphemes and spraying partially chewed biscuit crumbs to join the tea stains.  
It was quite ridiculous that he should be so sexy!

“Yeah….I’ve made my decision,” she grinned and chuckled aloud causing him to twist around his neck and face her.

“What? What’s so funny?” he asked, mirth prickling behind his eyes.

“Nothing,” she continued to giggle, “Just you do realise these things are all complete bollocks don’t you?” she indicated the folded magazine.

He shrugged incredulously, “Of course I do! I was banking on the fact that whatever we scored we’d get told that we are powerful, free thinking women with natural urges and that men are basically crap….I’ll be disappointed if we don’t!”

She gave an amused sigh. As he continued,  
“And anyway….you definitely don’t need to take a survey to find out if you’re sexy, Ellacott!” he stated, inhaling deeply and averting his eyes from her, focusing instead on his notepad.

“Same could be said about you,” she stated, hearing his loud expulsion of breath and knowing without seeing his face that his eyebrows would have formed an arch into his hairline.

He reached across and took the battered magazine from the desk where she’d discarded it.  
“Well, let’s see…...according to this…..”   
She interrupted him. “Hang on! You haven’t got my scores!”

He sniggered, “No need Ellacott….I’m a detective….I know what you scored!” he therefore flicked her a glance that was more amorous than amused before he cleared his throat a little and continued ‘reading’,   
“You are an exceptional woman who shows strength, integrity and intelligence in everything you do. You have the ability to draw everyone under your spell, your honesty and ridiculous ability to see the good in everyone is one of the most attractive features about you, although you are completely unaware of how sexy you are and the effect that has on those around you, particularly co-workers…..who find it almost impossible on a daily basis not to drag you across their desk and kiss the shit out of you.”

He was breathing heavily, knuckles white as he clutched the magazine, still feigning reading from it, although the very personalised nature of his speech made it evident that nothing written in the text was an accurate reflection of what he was saying.

Robin realised she was panting now too…..he wanted to kiss the shit out her…...it was so romantic!

“What about your result then,” she stated, her voice wavering and reflecting her trepidation.  
Cormoran gingerly turned and proffered the copy of Cosmopolitan towards her, meeting her eyes with his own darkly hooded and somewhat desperate gaze.  
She promptly took the magazine and tossed it aside, “Don’t need that,” she stated, breathing heavily, clenching her hands into fists so as not to chicken out.

“You’re skint, your hair is a disaster, your diet and subsequent toilet habits are abhorrent….but your make me laugh more than anyone I’ve ever known, and the fact that you’re like a dog with a bone over a case you want to crack is one of the most attractive things ever. The hair springing from the top of your shirt is like catnip and co-workers find it difficult not to lick the stubble on your chin when you reach across them to borrow their stapler,” she was gasping when she finished speaking.

Strike had rolled around and was sitting facing her on the sofa; her desk with the abandoned magazine article as a barrier between them.

“I ask to borrow that stapler a lot more than I need it,” he murmured, standing and taking a step towards her.

“I know,” she replied, standing herself and bracing her fingertips on the desk.

“What the fuck are you doing to me Ellacott?” he hissed, his eyes incapable of pulling away from hers which were magnetically drawing him closer as she brought one knee up to rest on the desk, crawling towards him, her lips forming a perfect, kissable pout.

“You’ve just done a magazine survey…...surely you can work it out,” she stated saucily before any further comments were silenced as he firmly, but tenderly pulled her across the desk and covered her mouth with his.

It was a kiss that could have been fuelled by them both having been thinking about sex for the past hour; or possibly by the fact that they had both wanted each other for so bloody long; or simply it was just one of those amazing kisses borne out of mutual compatibility…...there was probably a Cosmopolitan quiz they could do to find out…..but as she pushed him forcibly out of the office and towards his flat he knew that could wait!


End file.
